Cat struggling with moving house - please help!

[Viktorella]

We moved house last week with our two fabulous rescue cats and one is hiding away, pooing on floor and being sick 😔 Also - he stinks!
Background: We've lived with them in same house for 7 years. Mum cat (usually skittish, home body) has adjusted well. Son (massively outdoorsy, quite bold) seems broken by it.
Had to keep them in carriers for hours as solicitors delays in getting keys.
Set up litter tray and they both used it at first. Son is very long haired and sometimes struggles to clean his backside. He dragged his dirty bum all around our lovely new house 😭
We cleaned up after him and have now restricted him to kitchen but he's now started pooing on floor and being sick sporadically (including on the kitchen table 😟) He's still not cleaning himself well so smells awful but is freaked out by any attempt to help him.
We're still unpacking so his environment is quite unsettled. We've used feliway but don't know how else to help settle him and (perhaps more importantly!) to reduce the stench 😬
I know it will be better when all the crates are gone and we can give them a more secure environment but just don't know how to make it better for him (and us!) in the meantime?!

Have you got a room with out boxes where they can go for a week or so?
I would buy a large dog crate or if they won’t share all the time 2 small ones. Put the crate in a room without boxes. Make sure there’s plenty of room fir the litter tray, food, water and bed in the crate. It will contain the mess. Let them out in the room for an hour or so a day, gradually building up to all day when the messing has stopped. Then let them explore another room ( free of moving boxes) for an hour or so for a week, add in another room and keep going until they’ve explored the whole house when it’s all sorted.
We’ve had cats that have needed the gradual process and ones where as soon as the removal men have left they explore the house and the following morning they are asking to explore the garden. Those two cats did five house moves!

Great advice there.

Poor thing needs a quiet room with safe space where he can adjust undisturbed. Make sure it includes somewhere enclosed he can hide. I'd also go and sit with him quietly when you have the opportunity at regular intervals and just talk to him, oet him (if welcome) to give reassurance. Familiar smelling things and allll the feliway products.

Vet might be able to help with the stools and id consider clipping fur round his bottom until better- poor boy will be finding his mess distressing too.

*pet

Are his anal glands blocked?

Agree with the poster above. I know when we moved, the kitchen was one of the busiest rooms in the house with all the cleaning and unpacking going on.

Let him settle into the quietest room you have. Make sure it has blankets / items which smell like his old surroundings.

Make sure meals are the same type as they were previously and at the same times where possible. Don't be tempted to give him extra or different foods as treats for now.

Try using a large box or crate in the quiet room covered with a blanket and with a familiar scent inside to make a safe dark place for him to rest. As pp said, once he has settled down, start letting him out of the room for small amounts of time but don't overwhelm him. Close off most rooms and introduce them one at a time.

It sounds like he might just be very stressed with the move but contact your vet and get him checked over to make sure he hasn't picked something up or injured himself in the move.

I'm sure in another week or so he will be back to his usual self!